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Duggan sworn in as mayor of Detroit, outlines plans for first 100 days

Photo by City of Detroit
Outgoing Mayor Dave Bing, left, looks on as Mike Duggan is sworn in as mayor of Detroit on Wednesday morning. Duggan, center, is joined by his family. Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey administered the oath of office.

Mike Duggan was sworn in as Detroit's new mayor in a small ceremony in the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center on Wednesday morning.

Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey administered the oath of office to Duggan, 55. Answering reporters' questions following the ceremony, Duggan said he expects to spend the next four or five days visiting city departments, and that he plans to work on a public lighting plan and blight remediation in his first 100 days in office.

"I'm also starting with a series of meetings with senior staff on roads, planning, finance departments and the like," he said.

Duggan said he has met with all nine members of the Detroit City Council both individually and in small groups and has had "very good" discussions with them.

"I have a very good relationship with each of the nine members of the city council – and it always stays like that, doesn't it, Mayor (Bing)?" Duggan jokingly asked.

Duggan was joined by his wife and children, outgoing mayor Dave Bing, his incoming corporation counsel Melvin "Butch" Hollowell and Duggan's father, U.S. District Court Judge Patrick Duggan.

Since his election, Duggan and Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr have agreed upon power-sharing rules that give the former Detroit Medical Center president and CEO operational control over a significant portion of the city government. All department heads except the police chief and the chief financial officer will report directly to Duggan.

"I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about things I'm not responsible for," Duggan said today. "I'm going to be all over a public lighting plan, all over a blight plan … I'll be dealing with things like getting the buses running, the streets plowed, and those kinds of day-to-day things."

"I'm going to do the best job that I can in the areas that I'm responsible for and I'm hopeful that the plans for law enforcement work well."

In recent weeks, he has nominated or appointed top-level cabinet members and met with a crop of other newly elected mayors from large American cities at the White House.

Duggan, also a former deputy Wayne County executive and prosecutor, ran a campaign that criticized the state's intervention into the city's finances.

Detroit became the largest American city to file for Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy on July 18. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes confirmed the city's eligibility to proceed through the bankruptcy court on Dec. 3.

Orr, appointed by the state in March, has estimated that Detroit has more than $18 billion in debt and pension and health care liabilities. He expects to file a plan of adjustment for Detroit's debts early this month.

"I'm going to disagree with him on some things, but I understand what the law says and you won't see me attacking him," Duggan said Wednesday.

Both Hollowell and Duggan thanked Bing for his service to the city, which began when he was elected to a partial term in May 2009. Bing, a former Detroit Pistons star, announced last May that he would not seek a second full term in office. He is considering a bid for Wayne County executive.